Scotland

Since Donald Trump and the Birthers are everywhere today, I wonder if Alex Salmond winces at the memory of being described by Trump as "an amazing man"? I hope so. For Salmond's role in the saga of Trump's plans to build a golf course and, just as importantly, hundreds of "villas" on one of the more spectacular pieces of Aberdeenshire coastline was not one of the SNP ministry's finer moments. To recap, Aberdeenshire council rejected Trump's application to build two golf courses, a hotel and his houses on the Menie Estate (pictured above). The Scottish government, as it is wont* to do, called in the application and to precisely no-one's surprise over-ruled the council and gave Trump permission to build the "greatest golf course in the world".

I don't think this is a very good idea: Senior staffers in Ed Miliband’s office started briefing Scottish hacks last night that Miliband is now going to take a much more "hands on" approach to the campaign. Miliband has only made one, brief appearance in the campaign so far. But he and Ed Balls are due to be in Scotland this week to push a more strident "anti-independence" message. I suppose it's possible that this might resurrect Labour's fortunes but it seems unlikely. And that's partly because Labour have run such a drab, dreary, depressing campaign. Their principle approach to policy has been to thieve stuff from the SNP and rewrap it in Labour cloth, trusting that voters will think it belonged to Labour all along.

Severin Carrell reports that tomorrow's edition of the Sun will endorse Alex Salmond and the SNP. This should not surprise anyone. I suspect most of the Scottish press will support, albeit with significant qualifications, the Nationalists. The most significant of those qualifications is that this is a Holyrood election, not a Westminster one. Endorsing the SNP does not require anyone to support independence it's merely making the best of a poor job and recognising that the Nats are a more attractive choice than Labour. The press is prepared to back Salmond but only because independence is not on the immediate or even medium-term agenda. If it were the Nats would find themselves defriended by many of their erstwhile backers in the press.

Scotland on Sunday publishes a thumper of a poll today that suggests the SNP is on course to defeat Labour and remain the largest party at Holyrood. In fact, John Curtice's calculations have the Nats taking 55 seats to Labour's 49. The Tories, meanwhile, slip to 14 while the Lib Dems suffer a catastrophe and would be left with just six MSPs, just ahead of the Greens with five seats. Should this poll be accurate and should the election - which is still 18 fun-stuffed days away - produce a result of this sort then happy days indeed. By which I mean, of course, not-as-desperate-as-they-might-have-been-days. Kenny Farquharson lays it on a little thickly this morning when he contrasts the SNP's campaign of "hope" with Labour's fear-based approach but he is, in essence, correct.

Don't take my word for it just ask Iain Gray, Labour's leader at the Scottish Parliament. This is from a leaflet sent to voters in Edinburgh by Labour: Aye, well, there you go. Ye ken noo. Depressingly, Scottish schools now exist as a kind of control group against which we may measure the success of the English school reforms instigated by Lord Adonis and continued by Michael Gove. I hope the English win. Meanwhile, in other depressing election-leaflet news, I've yet to receive anything from the Jacobite Party who stood (manfully) and fell (equally manfully) in these parts last year. Surely they can't have given it up as a Lost Cause? Nor is Iain Gray the only Labour chap to blunder in this fashion. There's Charlie Gordon too.

Crivvens, the idea of an SNP-Labour coalition refuses to die. Here's Iain Macwhirter in the Herald: The rule seems to be that, in Scottish politics it’s easier to work constructively with parties you don’t agree with than with parties you do. Labour and the SNP now agree – independence aside – on most of the big issues, such as NHS privatisation, comprehensive education, free university tuition, more powers for Holyrood. But unfortunately they hate the sight of each other. Could they ever bury their differences? Most polls suggest that this is the coalition partnership Scots would most like to see. A grand coalition, perhaps, against the Tory cuts. Scotland’s two national parties working together for the common good. It’s not going to happen.

Meanwhile, STV have a poll asking punters who they think would make the best First Minister. The results are almost entertaining: Don't Know - 37% Alex Salmond - 30% None of Them - 16% Annabel Goldie - 9% Iain Gray - 7% Tavish Scott - 2% Remember that the same poll has Labour and the SNP neck and neck (38% to 37% on the constituency vote and 35% each on the list vote) and so, by my calculations, fewer than one in five Labour voters will tell pollsters their so-called leader is the best man to head the government after this election. Mr Gray complains that the SNP are a "one-man band" which is reasonable enough even if one suspects he'd have been out-polled by Nicola Sturgeon too. But even if he is correct he merely invites the observation that his own party is a no-man band.

Taken last week actually but you get the idea and is posted for the especial interest of exiled Selkirk folk everywhere. People, rightly, go on about the Highlands but Southern Scotland can often be just as lovely and is, I think, comparatively under-rated. The same might be said of Northumberland. Note to the Scottish government: this landscape would not be improved by plonking a socking great wind farm atop these hills.

That's the question Jeff Breslin asks at Better Nation and, as a bonus, he gets the answer right too: Alex Salmond. In truth, it's not a difficult question no matter how one approaches it. From a governance perspective the SNP have been modestly underwhelming. This still represents a major advance from the days of the Labour-Lib Dem coalition that preceded them. Nor is there any reason to hope for anything this time around from a Labour party actively hostile to anything that might even be mistaken for a fresh idea. On those grounds alone, a Labour minority ministry in Edinburgh is a dreary prospect. The Scottish elections in May are likely - nay bound! - to be interpreted in a UK context by much of the London press. They shouldn't be but they will be.